The Plan
by studio60-fan
Summary: Matt goes to a bar after his fight with Harriet in The Harriet Dinner, pt. 2.


He was feeling dizzy. His left eye was throbbing and something warm was trickling down the side of his face. He raised his hand to his head, trying to identify the source of the blood. It was a huge cut on his forehead. He looked around and realized he was in a dark alley behind a club. He suddenly remembered why he was here.

Matt was sitting at the bar, with his third glass of vodka in front of him. Next to it, there was an ashtray with almost 20 cigarette butts in it. His head felt heavy from all the alcohol and nicotine. Nonetheless, his brain hadn't stop working just yet and it was going through what happened only a few hours ago.

_We're going to be finished tonight, don't be scared._

These words echoed in his mind over and over. The whole evening took quite an unexpected turn. It really wasn't supposed to be like this. Okay, maybe Harriet was right, at the end of the night they would each have gone their separate ways but still… he hadn't expected THIS to happen.

There was something in her voice that seemed… final. And that scared the life out of him.

_You're thinking about sleeping with him?_ he had asked. She had nodded, averting her gaze from his. She looked guilty. He was really at a loss of words. And then, he got on that stupid stage to introduce Harriet and he choked! In front of a room full of influential people who were judging him. He could sense it, he could tell it just by the looks he was getting. They knew he didn't belong there.

He looked around the bar. He was secretly hoping that there would be a woman here, a desperate one looking for a one-night-stand so that he could take her back to his place and forget all about Harriet. But he also knew that in this case, he would wake up in the morning, extremely hung-over, with a strange girl in his bed and he would feel guilty. He would then have to make up some complicated plan to get the girl out of the house as soon as possible. And, of course, by the next day his little adventure would be in all of the tabloids. THEN, he would have to face the wrath of Jordan McDeere, Jack Rudolph and God knows who else who would be constantly yelling about how totally careless he is and that he doesn't give a damn about the network and what people think about it. Of course, this wouldn't be entirely wrong – he _didn't _care about the network or who was watching it. He cared about his sketches being funny. Others were paid to worry about that. Others like Danny, who probably, like him, wouldn't care about the story being all over the news, but instead congratulate him on finding his rebound girl. And, at last, he would have to face Harriet, and, after tonight, only a higher divinity (if one actually existed) could predict how she would react.

So, there goes the sleep-with-someone-to-get-over-it plan… But, alas, he had a backup. It was the I'll-drown-my-misery-with-tons-of-alcohol plan, which seemed to be working just fine.

Well… It was working until now. His eyes were now fixated on the entrance: Harriet and Luke Scott had just walked in. From all the bars in L.A they just _had_ to walk in this one! It was like they were doing this on purpose; first, the New Year's Eve party, now this. He felt the anger rising within him. He wasn't sure exactly why he was angry, but he assumed that just the sight of Harriet clung onto Luke's arm brought that feeling.

Not very sure of what he was doing, but also surprised that he could actually walk on two legs and in a fairly straight line, he crossed the room to the table where the happy couple were seated.

'Well, hello! Lovely evening, isn't it? Luke! Missed you at the awards dinner!'

Harriet started shifting uncomfortably in her seat. She had a really bad feeling about this.

'Yeah… uh… I had the work on the set.' Luke said.

'Ah, yes! The movie set! The big movie… The Rolling Stones… big budget… great cast… I especially liked that you cast Harri as Anita Pallenberg. Slick move… yeah, and think of the perks too! You get to sleep with her!'

'Matt…' Harriet began. 'I think you had enough to drink, and it's been a long night. Maybe you should just go home, get some rest.'

'Nooo, I'm fine, just chatting with Luke here. So tell me, Luke… Lucas… how does it feel to be able spend 60 million dollars of Paramount's money to date Harriet again?'

Luke rose abruptly from his chair. 'Okay, Matt, why don't you keep your mouth shut, okay? Just because you weren't smart enough to keep her doesn't mean nobody should have her!'

'Wow, wait a minute…' Harriet interrupted. '_Have her_? What am I, some kind of trophy??'

'No, honey, I didn't mean it like that…' Luke started.

'Yeah, Luke, she's not some kind of object, you know??' Matt cut in.

'Oh, you shut up! I am not very fond of you right now!' Harriet replied forcefully.

'Yeah, man, just shut up and leave. We were having a great time until you showed up!'

'Excuse me?? _I_ was having a perfectly good time until _you two_ walked in here! So I think it's just fair that you are the ones that should leave!'

'You know what, boys? _I_ am going to leave! I am tired and I want to go home. Have a good night!' And with that she grabbed her purse and hastily exited the bar.

'Yeah, thanks a lot, man. I appreciate you ruining my night.' Luke said.

And before Matt could stop himself (not that he really wanted to stop himself) he delivered a punch right into Luke's nose, which instantly started bleeding. This was, to say the least, a very stupid thing to do. Luke was much bigger and stronger than him. Hell, even Danny was stronger than Matt! This, combined with the fact that Matt had drank at least half a bottle of vodka resulted in Luke carrying him to the back alley, throwing him between the trash cans and punching him around for a while.

So, now he was laying face down on the cold cement, all covered in blood and something that looked a lot like banana peels. He slowly got off the ground and carefully started for his car. He got home, took a long hot shower and went straight to bed.

In the morning, his alarm clock went off at 7. He angrily hit the snooze button and laid still for a moment. He was a little hung over but that was nothing compared to the pain he was feeling in every little part of his body. And, like this wasn't bad enough, he had to get up, go to the studio and write or rewrite lots of sketches, including the Dolphin Girl sketch for Harriet's new funny voice. He somehow managed to get out of the bed and made it into work at 9, which was extremely early by his standards.

But as he opened the door to his office he was greeted by the magic trio, Danny, Jordan and Jack, who all started screaming the second they laid their eyes on him.

'Are you completely out of your mind??? Do you want me to loose my job?'

'What the hell were you thinking? And before a show day, too? This is now the best way to improve our ratings!'

'Really, man, you got beat up by _Luke Scott_? Well, that's just pathetic!'

_Hmm... Maybe I should have stuck with the sleep-with-someone-to-get-over-it plan..._ Matt thought as he plopped himself on the chair behind his desk.


End file.
